Kirjahaku

When the war-scarred Viscount Penrydd washes up in 1799 Newport minus his memory, Gwenllian ap Ewyas decides not to tell him he owns, and threatened to sell, the property she's made a refuge for her and other lost souls.Gwen found healing from her haunted past by making St. Sefin's into a sanctuary for the hurt and abandoned, and she'll do anything to preserve the place-including lie to the English lord who owns it until she can win him to her cause. But making Penrydd her stableboy is a dangerous game, especially when he's a target for an outside menace moving into Newport. Even more unsettling for Gwen, under the scars and arrogance is a man she can admire and possibly love. But as shadows from both their pasts appear at St. Sefin's, Gwen risks losing her livelihood, her home, and her heart when Penrydd learns just how far she's gone to deceive him.

In 1776 London, orphaned vicar's daughter Amaranthe Illingworth supports her small household with her skills as a copyist, but her quiet routine is shattered the day three children show up at her door seeking aid from her brother, their tutor. Behind them storms in Malden Grey, would-be barrister and their erstwhile guardian, who accuses Amaranthe of kidnapping the young Duke of Hunsdon and his siblings.The former duke's illegitimate son, Malden Grey has learned to live by his wits, and he's told he'll advance to the bar if he takes a proper wife. As she helps him restore order at Hunsdon House, Amaranthe seems a likely candidate-if only Mal can unearth the truth behind the rumors that she's been forging, and selling, priceless medieval manuscripts. Amaranthe, in the meantime, needs to stay on her guard lest the charming Malden Grey steal her heart at the same time she's hoping to borrow from his library a priceless book that could make her fortune.But when Mal's foray into Amaranthe's past yields a discovery that will change both of their destinies, they'll have to fight together to clear their names and stake out a future together-if either has a future at all.

Eleven years ago, ragtag near-orphan Harriette Smythe made a lifelong friend when she defended the young Earl of Renwick from the village boys persecuting him for his stammer and clubfoot. When Ren returns to London with all the polish of his Grand Tour and the need to take up his duties, he finds a woman in crimson silk shimmying through his window: Harriette, all grown up into a delectable woman, who offers him a startling proposal.Harriette, now an artist, has been helping support her eccentric household with salacious sketches that have made her notorious, but she needs to redeem herself with a respectable-and rich-clientele if she wants to keep a roof over their heads. She offers Renwick a trade: she'll help him select a bride from London's marriageable maidens if he agrees to sit for a portrait.Ren soon falls back under the spell of wild, willful Harriette, the only person who thinks he's perfect just as he is. But winning the one woman he cannot have will mean risking his life to free her from the grip of her past and the forces bent on tearing them apart.

Leda Wroth is atoning for the crimes of her past in her new life as a lady's companion, mentor, and fixer for those seeking love. But finding a wife for the Mad Baron is a task that will defeat even clever, capable Leda, for what woman would want a man-titled or not-rumored to have killed his first wife?Leda will stay in her comfortable establishment in Bath, thank you. Until a ghost comes in search of her-a ghost determined to expose the secrets Leda has kept hidden for eight long years.Jack Burnham, Baron Brancaster of Holme Hall, isn't mad-he doesn't think. But he does need a governess for his daughter, and Leda Wroth seems the woman to help him, even if he suspects she's running away from something. Even if she raises longings for a life he knows he can't have.But how can Jack convince Leda she's safe with him when Holme Hall holds secrets of its own? For more than one betrayal haunts the windy cliffs of Norfolk where the mad baron's wife died. And while Jack might try desperately to shield Leda from the mistakes of his own past, he can't protect her from the ghosts in hers, which are hellbent on taking away everything she's come to love.

When his cousin's death puts Leo Westrop in line to inherit a marquessate, he suddenly becomes the target of every matching-making mama in London, including his own. To save himself, Leo offers his hand to the angel who delivers him from a compromising situation-Lillian Gower, the daughter of well-known antiquarians, who could finally help Leo secure a dig of his own.Lillian, in town chaperoning her younger cousin, doesn't have a romantic bone in her body. She knows Westrop is desperate, and she's shrewd enough to bargain: she'll go along with the pretense if he helps her publish her study of the lady's slipper orchid.It's not part of the bargain for him to escort her to balls and gardens. She doesn't need his help organizing her uncle's library. He certainly oughtn't be winning over her cousin. And it's a mistake to bring him to meet her parents-but an even bigger mistake to agree to help him with his own excavation. Because the attentions of the delicious Leo Westrop could made even the most sensible botanical illustrator lose her head.An undeniable passion draws them together even when they both know their betrothal of convenience must end. But when Lillian learns what he's been after all along, what can Leo do to persuade her the feelings between them are real?

Eight years ago, a usurping uncle drove Melisende and her father from their beautiful mountain home. Since then, Melisende has had one goal: find the document proving her father the rightful Grand Duke of Merania. The last step of her search brings her to London, where one unexpected obstacle stands between her and her birthright-Philip Devlin.Devlin will never advance in government through the usual means; he's Irish, Catholic, and a lesser son. But he's very good at gathering information, especially sensitive information, especially from women. Melisende of Merania has secrets, and he's determined to learn them. Even if that means offering her protection against an unknown enemy set on stopping her by any means.Through ballrooms and alleys, intrigues and surprise attacks, Philip finds Melisende unlike any woman he's known-a woman worth fighting for. But as her quest leads them to a mountaintop castle to confront a ruthless assassin, Melisende must choose which she loves more: Merania, or Philip.

For fans of The Seven Day Switch, The Mix Up, and Freaky Friday, a body-swapping comedy about what it's like to see the world through another's eyes . . . Beth Barony is content with her middle-class, Middle America life. Really, she is. But she makes a tiny, secret birthday wish for more excitement in her life . . . and wakes up the next morning as Regan Forrester, a troubled young actor known for her rebellious smolder and empty head. What could be more fun than playing a Hollywood princess for a day? But Regan's life isn't at all glamorous. Her boyfriend is controlling and her apartment is a dump. While Beth scrambles to preserve Regan's shaky career and tenuous relationships, Regan gleefully steals Beth's husband, students, kids, and friends. And as the spell that switched them starts to unravel, Beth realizes why Regan wanted to escape her life: someone is trying to kill her. If Beth doesn't find a way to save both their lives, neither woman will have a life to go back to.

An intensely imagined third collection from an author whose work has been hailed as "exceptional," "extraordinary," "uncanny," and "refreshing, compelling, and moving." Urban is a "great storyteller" who writes "almost unbearably lovely prose." What unites the unlikely protagonists in these very different short stories is their search for refuge. In the opening story, "The Day of the Beheaded Barbie," the reappearance of an old friend pushes Melanie to a shocking discovery about her vanished sister and the daughter she left behind. In "Small Burials," Diana's husband whisks her away to Europe when children start haunting her after a devastating loss. Middle-aged Doris in "Table for Four" struggles with the disappointments that a set of customers in her diner throw into sharp relief, while Manya in "Gravel" tries to support her ex-boyfriend's wife while hiding the truth about their relationship. Some choose an absurd imaginative escape, like Lonnie of "Married, Living in Italy," who's telling her family she moved to Florence, or Stella in "Care of the Soul," who hasn't yet managed to inform her children that she's returned to the country after fleeing her divorce. Then there's the desperately lonely narrator of "Someone in the House," who thinks she's being stalked--or at least, she hopes she is--while young Mireya of "The Far Shore" is turning into a fish to rescue her brother from an unbearable fate. Through it all, these characters are crushingly believable and endearingly real in their defenses, their damage, their humor, and their sheer will as they turn suffering into salvation. Full of disappearing children and surfacing secrets, fragile triumphs and imminent loss, these eloquent tales laced with hilarity and grief illuminate shared human truths about betrayal, rescue, the places we seek shelter, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive.

SCENE TWO: TAKE FOUR Dale's in New Mexico licking her wounds. It's hard getting over a broken marriage, but seeing her daughter move on with her dad and his new wife is so much tougher. When a stalker walks up the pathway of the inn where Dale's working as the landscape designer, she attacks him with a mega blast from the garden hose. Turns out he's a new guest, and instead of booking in, he decided to take a tour around the inn. She's not in the mood to play host, not even when she learns he's Timothy Kay, one of Hollywood's top film directors who's scouting for a new location for his next movie. When the need to make amends overtakes her good judgment, she offers to give him a tour of the town. As the saying goes: one thing leads to another. Getting close to the hot A-lister is cut short when social media explodes with death threats from leaked compromising pictures of her daughter and her best friend. Once catastrophe is averted, Dale doesn't know if fixing her relationship with Timothy a possibility or just another in a long line of disappointments and heartbreak.